November 2011
8 posts
6 tags
Using Maya in Headless Modes to Do Batches
Maya has three methods of interacting with it without a GUI. The first is by sending it commands via Unix standard output and a commandPrompt port (covered here), the second is in prompt mode where it basically runs in a terminal as a MEL or Python interpreter, letting you open scenes and process them with text commands. The other method is to ask it to do commands while opening a scene for...
3 tags
Revisiting the Quadro 4000 Mac Edition: Lion Makes...
I get a lot of questions about graphics cards on the Mac since I review them for Ars Technica and have a lot of experience with GPUs and different 3D/app apps in OS X. A lot of people read my review of the Quadro 4000 Mac Edition and are now wondering if this card, which performed really well but had a lot of show-stopping bugs at the time of the review, is now working like it should. Yes, it is....
October 2011
15 posts
3 tags
Dock (Almost) Any Floating Window in Maya 2011 and...
Quick tip to dock your floating windows in Maya (requires later Qt versions). Find the name of your active windows in Maya by entering this in the MEL command line:
lsUI -windows;
Within that list is all the active windows. With the Script Editor and PoseMan open, the returned result is // Result: MayaWindow window1 scriptEditorPanel1Window //
So we can assume PoseMan is window1. Plug the...
The best improvements to work always comes from asking yourself “is what I’m doing too easy?” The difficult route is always more fulfilling. It’s like forcing your art to play a game of Dark Souls and come out a hardened badass.”
4 tags
Automator Services to Convert Text Cases
My WordService utility was broken by the Lion update and it doesn’t look supported anymore, so I made these conversion services from shell scripts I found around the Net.
Put them into ~/Library/Services/ to install. [Optional] Assign hotkeys in Services system preference panel and you’re set for quick conversion of text.
4 tags
Rejoice: Region Rendering for Maxwell Render in...
This is something that has been missing forever in Maxwell’s Maya plug-in and I’m working on a project with Maxwell now so I thought I’d see if I could adapt my
V-Ray Tuner region rendering script for use with with this and lo, it works:
I’ll be making a palette of Maxwell stuff similar to V-Ray Tuner (without as many controls, obviously) but you can grab the script...
4 tags
Facer 2.2 Posted for Download
Go get it - new stuff since 2.0:
Transfer UVs now uses polytransfer so it doesn’t require deleting history to retain them after the source object is gone. There was much rejoicing.
Toggle Bounding Box now works with objects on display layers. In those cases, it will toggle the display layer.
Added a Bevel Hard Edges script that prompts you to bevel all edges over a certain angle for...
5 tags
Next Addition to Facer Script: Bevel Only Hard...
After seeing Ryan Gosling’s stomach in Crazy Stupid Love, I’ve got my mind set on chiseling. Every Maya user knows how annoying bevels can be since it bevels all edges by default, forcing you to pick which ones you want to bevel, which is often just edges over an N degree. Using selection constraints and temp smoothing, you can have this done automatically for only hard edges and...
“My mom said it was “interesting,” so you know it’s good”
2 tags
An Automator Service to Convert eBooks With...
While I wait for all my iOS devices to update, here’s a thing I made this morning: an Automator converter to use Calibre to convert selected PDF/ePub/etc files to .mobi eBooks for the Kindle. Why use this when you could use Calibre’s interface to do the same? Because you’d have to use Calibre’s interface – a program so awful to use that it’s truly shocking.
Install...
2 tags
Using ZBrush's Timeline as a Bookmark Manager
Sometimes you need to see your sculpt from a specific angle and focal length to match a shot or projection and, while Mudbox has the ability to import FBX cameras, ZBrush is more limited in this regard. Fortunately, there is a workaround for ZBrush 4 and above: use the Movie timeline to create a pseudo bookmark that you can drop back to that whenever you need to:
1 tag
5 tags
Tip for Quickly Creating Swatches With Linear...
My workflow for creating linearized swatches is pretty simple. I usually use the LWFMe button in V-Ray Tuner and use the automatic LWF in V-Ray. But it’s a bad idea to use the automatic LWF when using SSS materials, so this is what I do for swatches in those cases (after hitting LWFMe to set up the linear workflow but then disable the LWF toggle so everything else like gamma is correct but...
4 tags
Toggle Bounding Box for Selected Objects Script
I just put this updated simple code in Facer to toggle bounding box drawing mode for meshes. Now also works with objects on display layers. Great for working with lots of meshes that don’t need to be shown. Put the code inside the first and last {} brackets in a custom hotkey for keyboard-based toggling.
2 tags
Fix for ZBrush 4R2's Losing Interface...
I’m loving ZBrush 4R2 but I noticed that it was losing certain contextually-activated custom interface elements on relaunch. I have my UI tricked out and customized to avoid jumping around palettes so this was annoying. I just got an email from Pixologic that there’s a fix for this problem at the bottom of this thread. Put the plug-in in ZStartup/ZPlugs and relaunch ZBrush. After that....
dancoates asked: Hi, Thanks for your post on command line rendering. Do you know if it is possible to load a plugin from the command line before starting the render. I have a plugin reading in geometry exported from Houdini that is essential for my scene and I cannot install it in any of the permanent maya plug-in folders because I am batch rendering at my University and do not have administrator privileges. Thank...
1 tag
My VMware vs. Parallels Review is Up on Ars...
If you’re a Mac user looking for virtualization of 3D apps, check out my review that pits the two heavyweights of virtualization against each other in games and 3D apps. The speed these apps are getting for Windows in a VM is amazing and I run Max frequently for scene conversions in Parallels without problems.
September 2011
21 posts
2 tags
Maya 2012 Node Editor Quick Look and Tips
So the Maya 2012 Subscription Advantage Pack is out and it’s pretty sweet. Apart from the OpenCL-accelerated Bullet Physics and Alembic, the big feature is of course the new Node Editor panel. Many people would agree that this was long overdue for a procedural node-based program like Maya, and the Hypershade just wasn’t cutting it anymore. You’ll be happy to know that it’s...
1 tag
Mudbox 2012 SAP - The Most Broken Software I've...
Excitedly launched Mudbox 2012 to find it’s a broken mess. Watch how it just discards the sculpting changes as I go up the subdivision levels but then keeps it as I go back down:
Any time I’m not doing anything in that video, the app is actually lagging. I really don’t know what’s going on with this app but, considering just how amazing ZBrush 4R2 is and how busted this...
5 tags
Send Standard Output to Maya
This is just a shell script version of the code from my OS X Automator service to send UNIX standard output to Maya as commands (this only works in OS X and Linux). Put this Ruby script in any binary $PATH and then make it executable:
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'socket'
begin
mel = STDIN.read
s = TCPSocket.open("localhost", 2222)
s.puts(mel)
end
Open port 2222 in Maya, so that it...
